Page 95 - test2

When asked how he would typically line up the piping and valve
arrangements for conducting a negative test, Harrell described another method
for performing a negative test. He explained that “[y]ou do it by leading
[bleeding] off back to Halliburton and up your drill pipe. You pump seawater to
the end of your tail pipe and all the way back up to above your annular with
your spacer…You hold the mud in the riser with the annular closed…You have
seawater in the drill pipe and you have seawater in the kill line and either one
would be seeing the same pressure…”
214

Leo Lindner, an employee of MI‐SWACO, testified that on the morning of
April 20, 2010, he had two separate conversations regarding the negative
pressure test, one with Kaluza and one with Morel. Lindner stated:

He [Kaluza] wanted to go over the method by which the rig had been
doing its negative test and displacing. I explained – I explained it to him.
He seemed satisfied with it. Shortly after that, I was called by Mr. Brian
Morel. We had basically the same conversation. He seemed satisfied with
it. He informed me they were going to be displacing further down the
hole than usual. Usually itʹs 300 feet below the mud line, but this was
going to be at 8,367 feet [3,367 below the mud line]. I left the office and I
make my calculations. I type up a displacement procedure.
215

Lindner’s procedure specifically instructed, as step two, to “[d]isplace
choke, kill, and boost lines and close lower valves after each.” The procedure
216
did not instruct the personnel to re‐open the choke and kill lines, which would be
necessary to perform a negative test on either line. In any event, Lindner
presciently noted at the end of the procedure that “[g]ood communication will be
necessary to accomplish a successful displacement. If you are not sure, stop and
ask.”
217

The only instruction given to the rig personnel in evaluating the negative
test was to monitor the well for no flow. No instructions were given to re‐open
the choke and kill lines, to monitor drill pipe pressure, or to evaluate and
investigate any pressure differentials. Testimony and interview notes from BP

214 Harrell testimony at 33.
215 Lindner testimony at 272.
216 BP‐HZN‐MBI00133083.
217 Id.

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